Confronting Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: My Father's Death

The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 38, No. 5, pp. 23-26, 2008

4 Pages Posted: 13 Dec 2010 Last revised: 25 Dec 2010

See all articles by Susan M. Wolf

Susan M. Wolf

University of Minnesota Law School

Date Written: September 1, 2008

Abstract

This article recounts the author’s struggle with her dying father’s request to “accelerate” death. After termination of artificial nutrition and hydration, he asks, in effect, for physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia. The author initially refuses. But her devotion to her father forces her to reconsider her position. “My father’s death forced me to rethink all I had written over two decades opposing legalization of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.” In this article, narrative meets analytic scholarship, as the author is compelled to reconsider arguments developed over years of research and scholarship as her father lies dying. She finds the answer not just in logic, but in act of caring for her father and growing even closer as death nears.

Keywords: Euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, health law, law and medicine, bioethics, narrative

Suggested Citation

Wolf, Susan M., Confronting Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: My Father's Death (September 1, 2008). The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 38, No. 5, pp. 23-26, 2008, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1724751

Susan M. Wolf (Contact Author)

University of Minnesota Law School ( email )

229 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States
612-625-3406 (Phone)
612-624-9143 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.umn.edu/facultyprofiles/wolfs.html

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